Five Little Words that Crushed Me

I love mornings, I get alone time, it's quiet, and after about 20 minutes I'm fully refreshed. I don't, on the other hand, like people in the morning. This morning my brother, Eric, woke up about the same time I did. Eric is four years old, and as cute as can be. He followed me downstairs while I got my breakfast, I sat down and ate it and he asked if he could have some too. I frowned, I didn't want to get him breakfast. But instead of telling him to go ask my mom I told him I would get him some as soon as I was done eating. Unfortunately my mind was full. Instead I got my shoes on. Then I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. He followed thinking that as soon as I did that I would get him some cereal. Not understanding his intentions and completely forgetting that I told him I would get him cereal I played a game with him where I blocked him in the mirror, he giggled accordingly. I went downstairs, pulled out my outline for history, sat on the couch, and started reading. After a few seconds of sitting on a stool and waiting for me, he realized that I wasn't going to get him cereal. Being four years old, this crushed him. He started to cry and ran out of the kitchen. Eventually he joined me in the living room laid his head on the couch and cried. I asked him sweetly what was wrong and offered to cuddle with him. Then I offered to help him. He turned to me and these were his exact words, "Only mommy can help me, because you're not always there." These five words took me by surprise and I mumbled something about being in high school most of the day.
As I started to think about this, I realized he didn't mean "you're not always there," meaning that I wasn't always at home helping him. But rather he meant that I wasn't always there for him to fall back on and trust. That morning I had abandoned his trust, I had abandoned him. This almost made me cry. He had trusted me and I had let him down. Even if was just over a bowl of cereal. The point is, I learned an important lesson today. I never want the feeling of letting my little brother fall again, and from now on I'll try to do what I said I would do right away.